ANAHEIM, Calif. – In an early “Fight of the Night” candidate, Dennis Bermudez and Matt Grice traded devastating punches and left the audience standing after 15 minutes.

In the end, it was Bermudez’s heart and cardio that helped him prevail. He earned a split decision while winning the fight with scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28.

The featherweight bout was part of the preliminary card of Saturday’s UFC 157 event at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. It aired on FX following additional prelims on Facebook and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Bermudez got off to an early start when he blocked a takedown attempt from Grice and landed a flurry of heavy punches and elbows from the mount position. But Grice’s response was equally devastating. After escaping the position, he dropped “The Ultimate Fighter 14″ finalist cold with a left hook to bring the fight to the brink of a stoppage.

Bermudez survived an onslaught of follow-up blows, but just barely.

Grice continued to find success with his left hand in the second round and knocked down Bermudez. But after taking a shot midway through the frame, he began to expire as Bermudez found a second wind. By the end of the frame, it was Bermudez scoring in close and threatening with a submission attempt.

The comeback continued for Bermudez in the third and final frame when he rocked the fading Grice with a punch and following up with a flurry of punches that brought referee Herb Dean closer. Grice managed to survive and return to his feet, but Bermudez continued to press and land more punches that repeatedly wobbled his opponent.

Grice looked ready to go at any moment, and yet, he continued to remind Bermudez he was still around with intermittent punches.

The two went toe-to-toe in the final moments of the fight, which brought screams from those in attendance at Honda Center.

It was an exhilarating fight that put the pair up for a performance bonus.

“That was insane,” Bermudez said. “Somewhere around the second round, I woke up and thought, ‘Oh, I’m in a fight. I think I’m in California somewhere.’ If he’d given me a reason, maybe I would have quit. I had that battle inside me where I maybe could have (quit), but I won that battle and from there got back into the fight. I was getting beat in the first round, and in the last round I hit him with everything. I had him badly hurt, but he just kept throwing big hooks as if I hadn’t spent the last 30 seconds beating on him. He’s crazy. He’s a great fighter – so tough. The crowd was going nuts, but all I could think was, ‘Please, please, go down and stay down!’ That was an honor to fight that guy.”

“You get to know someone really well in a fight like that, and I’ve got so much respect for Dennis as a person and a fighter after that,” Grice said. “I hit him so hard. He came back at me. In that last round, I just kept throwing, man. I thank God he blessed me with a hard head, but looks like he blessed Dennis with a hard head, too. I felt I won the first round and he took the last, and it was up to the judges who took the second round. I don’t feel too bad. I wanted to win, but I think the fans are going to remember that fight and, maybe, they will get to see it again someday.”

Bermudez (10-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) now enjoys a three-fight win streak while Grice (16-5 MMA, 2-5 UFC) goes back to the drawing board after a decision win over Leonard Garcia in his previous outing.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?